Tether holds about 150,000 BTC, worth roughly $11.5 billion, according to CEO Paolo Ardoino.
Ardoino made the comment during a keynote speech at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland.
“We have give or take 150,000 bitcoin ourselves. It’s not much, but it’s honest work,” he said.
A gap with the reserve report
The figure is higher than the one in Tether’s latest official report. Its third-quarter reserve attestation, which covers the assets backing its USDT stablecoin, lists $8.37 billion of Bitcoin valued at $83,621 per coin. That works out to about 100,000 BTC.
That leaves a gap of roughly 50,000 BTC, worth about $3.8 billion at current prices.
Ardoino did not say where the extra coins are held or when they were bought, and did not describe them as a new purchase. Tether has previously said its own corporate Bitcoin investments are kept separate from the reserves that back USDT, which may account for the difference. Tether had not clarified the figure at the time of writing.
How Tether buys Bitcoin
In May 2023, Tether said it would put up to 15% of its net realised operating profits into Bitcoin each quarter, and hold the coins itself rather than through a third-party custodian.
Tether’s latest financials
Tether’s third-quarter report showed:
- $191.45 billion in assets
- $183.50 billion in liabilities
- a surplus of $7.95 billion, up from $4.11 billion in June
- about $132.4 billion in US Treasury bills, the largest part of its reserves
- a net operating profit of $1.5 billion for the quarter
Tether began its first full financial audit, with KPMG, this year. Ardoino said the company serves more than 730 million users and adds about 30 million wallets each quarter.
What happens next
A breakdown from Tether showing where the extra Bitcoin sits, and the results of the KPMG audit, would confirm how the 150,000 BTC is split between USDT reserves and the company’s own holdings.
